11 mind blowing facts you never knew about wind turbines and why they should stay

12 mind blowing facts you never knew about wind turbines

Architectural beauty and a blot on the landscape, wind turbines split opinion but are here to stay. The scramble to find a sustainable and renewable energy source has seen many of these huge structures pop up alongside motorways and in fields.

Using the power of the wind, turbines rotate to generate energy that is then either plumbed directly into storage, into the grid or connect straight through to machinery.

Here are some awesome facts that we’ve put together about wind turbines, a great read whilst you’re having a morning coffee!

Let’s get this show on the road. In no particular order…

1. By the time we celebrate 2030, U.S wind power will save nearly 30 TRILLION bottles of water. TRILLION. I’ll just let that soak in.

2. Staying with the U.S theme; at times, wind energy produces as much as 25% of the electricity on the Texas power grid. And Texas is frickin’ huge!

3. One single wind turbine can generate enough energy to power 500 homes. If you’re electricity bill is £100 per month that means there could be a collective saving of £50,000 PER MONTH. Just imagine what a small village could do with that.

4. Modern wind turbines now produce over 15 times as much energy as those built in 1990. Because of advances in technology and research, we now have the ability to make lighter metals as seen a huge increase in efficiency.

5. Unlike nearly all other forms of energy, wind power uses next to no water at all. We’ll add “Save water” to the list of pros for wind turbines!

6. Due to the lowered cost of manufacturing, wind power is currently the fastest growing source of electricity production in the WORLD.

7. Google, the worlds largest search engine and biggest companies, has invested $5billion in a new underwater transmission line to connect offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean with 1.9 million households on the East Cost of America.

8. Wind turbines and harnessing wind power aren’t new. Wind mills have been around since 2000 B.C and were first developed in China and Persia. Although the tech behind it has changed a little since then!

9. Seguing back to America, wind power is a $10billion a year industry.

10. 95% of wind turbines are built on private lands and farms. The huge amount of open space that is privately available means that many companies looking to set up wind turbines might find it much easier to go directly to land owners and offer incentives to have one built. As well as free energy, incentives can also include cash lump sums and monthly income. The returns for energy companies are massive, so a relatively small investment is nothing.

11. Wind turbines don’t have to be gangly or stuff out in a field somewhere. 10kw wind turbines are suitable for schools and can be ideal to lower the utility cost of large buildings

 Regardless of what you think about them, wind turbines will be around to stay. Although they might blot the skyline or be sight-for-sore-eyes, we have to remember the bigger picture and having a renewable energy source literally on tap means we can lower emissions as well as lowering the cost of those ever-rising energy bills!
Spectrum Energy is one of the UKs leading wind turbine and alternative energy installation companies. They offer a large range of services, providing the full project life cycle.
Jason writes articles and produces content for all their marketing material. When he's not nose-deep in a brochure design or poster he's writing short pieces about the energy industry.